Stories, Observations, and Musings From a Social Voyeur

Finding Inspiration and Validation.

This year has been a pretty amazing fucking year for me. This year, within a week’s time Collins Drive opened for a jamband icon (Mike Glabicki of Rusted Root) and were hand picked by one of my biggest influences of all time (Kevn Kinney) to perform at one of his showcase shows called Kevn Kinney’s Rocket Shop. For me, these two shows were absolutely huge for so many reasons. Primarily, the Mike Glabicki show was huge because it was getting the chance to open for the singer of one of my favorite Jam Bands. The Kevn Kinney show was really special because here was this hero of mine inviting my band to come be a part of of his show and then inviting us to sit in with him at the end of the night with “Straight to Hell.” That was an experience I’ll never forget. It was amazing, it was loving, it was exciting and it was validating.

Validation is a big thing for all of us. We all love to hear that we are doing something good. These two shows and the reactions from both the artists and the audiences completely had me validated. The feeling of being accepted as an equal to these guy and having them both tell me just how much they love my material is something that you just can’t put a price on. I feel as if I’ve made it… WE’VE made it.